{"id":149134,"date":"2025-09-16T23:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149134\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T23:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:43:14","slug":"beginner-trains-with-nothing-but-dumbbells-for-100-days-here-are-his-impressive-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149134\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginner Trains With Nothing But Dumbbells for 100 Days \u2013 Here Are His Impressive Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people assume you need rows of machines, heavy barbells and an expensive gym membership to build muscle<\/a>. But what if all you had was a bench, a pair of dumbbells, and a programme<\/a> with a bit of structure? Turns out that it is possible with a more minimalist setup.<\/p>\n

YouTuber and trainer Jeremy Ethier put the challenge to the test<\/a> with his brother-in-law, Dayton, volunteering as tribute. For 100 days and nothing but a set of dumbbells and a bench, the beginner lifter<\/a> would set out to lose fat and gain muscle. ‘I want to prove that you can get the same results training here [at home] as you can training here [in the gym],’ Ethier says.<\/p>\n

Dayton’s body fat had increased to 32.5%, his visceral fat was at a dangerous level, and his diet was built around fast foods and snacks. While the transformation was for aesthetic goals, it was also highly necessary for his health.<\/p>\n

What to read next\"two<\/p>\n

@jeremyethier\/\/YouTube<\/p>\n

The Training Plan<\/p>\n

Dayton starts at 164lbs and 32.8% body fat. His training is focused on every muscle group, with moves such as:<\/p>\n

Chest<\/a>: Incline and flat bench presses, customised to Dayton\u2019s sternum angle, ‘For you to really unlock the upper chest, you\u2019re probably gonna have to use a slightly higher incline compared to me,’ says Ethier.Back<\/a>: Chest-supported and single-arm rows, with precise cues to take the biceps out of the movement and squeeze the shoulder blades together.Shoulders<\/a>: Adjusted pressing angles to avoid clicking shoulders, plus drop set<\/a> lateral raises.Arms<\/a>: Incline curls for the upper biceps, preacher curls for the lower fibres, and overhead extensions to hit the long head of the triceps.Legs<\/a>: Wide and narrow-stance Bulgarian split squats<\/a>, Romanian deadlifts<\/a>, plus creative variations for leg extensions such as reverse Nordics and sissy squats.<\/p>\n

As the training progressed, Dayton was already running into a common home-training challenge: his 50lb dumbbells felt too light. The solution was a science-based tweak to pre-exhaust<\/a> the muscles. ‘He\u2019ll start with an isolation move like the dumbbell fly and take his chest all the way to failure, then switch to a heavier press,’ Ethier explained.<\/p>\n

The Diet<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, diet<\/a> was an integral part of the transformation \u2013 after all, the key to losing body fat is creating a calorie deficit<\/a> by consuming less food than you burn. Dayton’s previous dinners of ribeye steak and butter contained 50 grams of fat and over 750 calories. This was then substituted for leaner cuts of meat without butter. Frequent snacking was also a culprit, with high-calorie popcorn being a frequent addition to his daily intake. Ethier recommended to swap this for plain popcorn, with caramel protein powder<\/a> and sugar-free syrup.<\/p>\n

The Habit Change<\/p>\n

The hardest part for the beginner wasn’t the exercises or the diet swaps, but it was remaining consistent. He admitted there were days he was ‘just kind of agitated and miserable for no real reason,’ which can sometimes be a sign on prolonged time in a calorie deficit<\/a>. However, he also had changes to his work circumstances which added stress. The training was helpful during this time, ‘Having that routine is the only thing that\u2019s really keeping me sane at the moment,’ he shared.<\/p>\n

\"before<\/p>\n

@jeremyethier\/\/YouTube<\/p>\n

The Results<\/p>\n

When the first 100 days finished, the numbers were impressive:<\/p>\n

17lbs of fat lost6lbs of muscle gainedBody fat down from 32.8% to 23.5% <\/p>\n

‘Your chest is filling out, and your arms too,\u2019 Ethier told Dayton. The small experiment proved that with structure, consistency and a little creativity, fat can be lost and muscle can be built without a gym membership. More importantly, it showed that no matter your starting point, whether you have limited time or kit, you can still improve your health in a short amount of time. Ethier summed it up: ‘You can do a lot with light weights.’<\/p>\n

If you want to get the same results with just a pair of dumbbells, you can check out Men’s Health Dumbbell Club, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most people assume you need rows of machines, heavy barbells and an expensive gym membership to build muscle.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,782,79345,784,783,79344,61],"class_list":["post-149134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-c947a397-612e-4176-886d-af1bb4dc8ed3","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-beginners-progress-from-100-day-dumbbell-plan","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}